We're not under the impression that Indiana's finish, good or bad, will have a lot of impact on the decision of Thomas Bryant. As Jeff and I were talking about on the way back from Chicago yesterday---if that were the case then we wouldn't still be hearing Missouri is a serious option for him.
His mother wants him to go to Syracuse. That's been well established. He's from Rochester, New York, so it makes sense in that regard. But continue to hear he would like to get away from home and with the NCAA cloud hanging over the Syracuse program right now, that's nowhere near the slam dunk many thought before.
Between Chuck Martin and IU's resume of producing lottery bigs, there's a realistic shot here. Can't go farther than that right now and it still looks like a mid-spring decision.
No other 2015 targets look serious right now other than maybe Thon Maker. Just so much uncertainty there as it is a bit of circus. The Orangeville Prep program is more of a showcase situation as their poor record in the USA attests. Maker could play overseas as he spent many years in Australia and guys like Brandon Jennings and Emmanuel Mudiay have opened up that possibility more.
But not a lot of other late possibilities of note, at least as far as we know right now. For example if things had heated up with Antonio Vrankovic you would have probably heard of trips to Florida to see him like that Will Yeguete recruitment several years past.
The Class of 2016 seems to begin with De'Ron Davis and we've updated you a couple times on that one here in the last couple weeks. IU has made up ground with 6'10 Joey Brunk but still some work to be done. Some very good two guard possibilities with Rawle Alkins and Eron Gordon. Bruce Brown if he stays in 2016. Lamar Stevens is ideal for a Tom Crean team and there are some higher quality inside guys on the radar in Tyrique Jones, Austin Davis, Derek Funderburk and maybe Sedee Keita. One guy that was on the radar, Omari Spellman, committed to Villanova last week.
We've often discussed how talented the state of Indiana is in the Class of 2017 and the new rankings for that class reflect that:
No. 21 - Kris Wilkes, 6'7, Indianapolis North Central
No. 31 - Paul Scruggs, 6,3, Indianapolis Southport
No. 34 - Jaren Jackson, 6'8, Indianapolis Park Tudor
No. 71 - Malik Williams, 6'11, Fort Wayne Snider
The No. 2 overall player is now Michael Porter, a 6'8 forward who lived in the Indy area until his father landed an assistant job on the Missouri women's team. He's close to Wilkes, Scruggs and HSE's Zach Gunn, yet another 2017 in-state prospect of note.
Speaking of that 2017 class a recruiting contact I know is convinced that a Midwest prospect to watch out for in that class and one not a lot of people know about is 6'2/6'3 guard Alonzo Verge from Willowbrook (Villa Park), Illinois. Been tearing it up of late.
Verge is under the radar since he did not play travel basketball last offseason and was out of state to boot.
That source is also convinced the best 2016 prospect in that state is 6'9 Rapolas Ivanauskas from Barrington High. Unranked but does hold Iowa and Northwestern offers and interest from Wisconsin, Indiana, Illinois.
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Looking like Indiana is headed to the 5-7 seed area for the Big Ten tournament. Can no longer catch Maryland or Purdue as they'll lose the tiebreakers there even if those two teams both lose out and just stay with 11 wins.
Here's a look at the schedules of the teams they're competing with for the 4-7 seed area:
Michigan State (10-5) - at Wisconsin, Purdue, at Indiana
Ohio State (9-6) - Purdue, at Penn State, Wisconsin
Iowa (9-6) - at Penn State, at Indiana, Northwestern
Indiana (9-7) - Iowa, Michigan State
A quick look at the likely scenarios for the 4-7 seed range:
4 seed - gets a coveted bye until Friday. Then faces the 5/12 winner in the second afternoon contest.
5 seed - Thursday afternoon game, possibly against survivor of Penn State vs Nebraska. Winner gets a Friday afternoon game against 4 seed (Michigan St?)
6 seed - Thursday night game against either Rutgers or the 11 seed (Nebraska?). Winner may very well get Purdue on Friday night.
7 seed - today this looks like a Thursday evening game against Minnesota. Winner gets Friday night game against No. 2 seed (Maryland?).
For fans interested in a get together in Chicago, we're definitely organizing one. Probably on Thursday sometime now that IU looks to be playing that day. We've had a good response already and if you'd like to be on our email list for information, I can be reached at this email here.
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Matt Weaver is back with a football update:
The Indiana staff has been hard work on the 2016 recruiting class with getting prospects on campus for visits and by extending new offers. Back on the 8th of February IU had a junior day and Peegs.com spoke to a number of the players that were there for that event.
One recruit that made the trip to Bloomington for the junior day was Illinois WR/DB Emmanuel Rugamba. The Hoosiers offered him while he was on campus for his visit. The three-star recruit could play on either side of the ball in college but IU likes him on offense at wideout. You can read the story we did on him here[/URL].
Fellow Illinois native Desmond Bland also made he drive over for the Indiana Junior Day a few weeks back and before he left town the IU staff extended him an offer. The three-star offensive lineman projects as an interior lineman in college. Here is the story we did on Bland not long after his visit to IU.
Mishawaka offensive lineman Ben Knutson made the trip down to Bloomington for the junior day and he also picked up an offer. The three-star recruit is a very big lineman at 6'8 and around 270 and most schools are recruiting him to play tackle, but there is a chance he could also end up on defense as a defensive lineman. You can see what he told us about his IU visit in this story.
Missouri tight end is another 2016 prospect that visited IU for the junior day and picked up an offer before leaving town. The three-star recruit had a big season this past fall at Lafayette H.S. in Wildwood, MO in his first season playing tight end. Peegs.com spoke to Scales about the visit and about what he thinks of the IU program. You can read that story here.
Last week the Hoosiers hosted a fan day where Coach Wilson talked about the new recruiting class before the basketball team played Purdue. The staff was able to get a handful of in-state players to come down for the event and for the game. Indianapolis athlete Chris Evans was one of the players that visited last week. The three-star recruit from Ben Davis is one of the top targets for IU in the 2016 class and they have made a strong early impression on him. update we did on Evans after his most recent trip to Bloomington.
Another top target for the Hoosiers in the 2016 class is quarterback Brandon Peters from Avon H.S. The four-star prospect was at the junior day back on the 8th and he was also down last week for the fan event and basketball game. Peters is not only one of the top players on the state, he is one of the top players nationally. He has recently picked up offers from Michigan and LSU and he looks close to getting offers from Nebraska and Notre Dame. He told the Nebraska Rivals site that IU is one of three schools that are really standing out to him, and he mentions how strong of a bond he has been able to develop with the staff. You can read that story here.
Another in-state prospect that was in Bloomington last Thursday for an unofficial visit was Hamilton Southeastern LB Collin Miller. He came into the visit hoping for an IU offer and he got his wish as the Hoosiers' coaching staff offered him while he was on campus for the visit. A few days after that visit he was in Ohio for the Pylon 7-on-7 event and he did a video interview with Josh Helmholdt. You can watch that interview here.
Helmholdt did a story where he talked about the top performers at that event and there were a handful of prospects from Indiana that performed well including Chris Evans and his Ben Davis teammate Stori Emerson and Ft. Wayne QB Aidan Smith. You can check out the top performers story Helmholdt did here.
Emerson is a 6'2, 190-pound receiver for the Giants and he is another guy that was down at IU last week for a visit. He spoke to Helmholdt about his recruiting and his interest in IU in this story.
The next big junior day for IU looks to be next weekend when the basketball team plays Michigan State at home on March 7th. One player who is scheduled to be on campus is Ohio defensive lineman Jeff Pooler. The Dayton native has already visited IU and he is very high on the Hoosiers. Here is the story that the Cincinnati Rivals.com site did on him where he talks about Indiana.
Indiana was the first offer for St. Louis defensive back Roderick Campbell and the three-star prospect really likes the Hoosiers. He told Josh Helmholdt that IU is one of three schools that are standing out to him at this time. Here is the story that Helmholdt did on Campbell where he talks about the Hoosiers and why he likes them so much.
The Indiana staff is also showing some interest in junior college prospects in the 2016 class and they recently offered one in linebacker here.
This post was edited on 2/27 11:01 AM by Peegs
His mother wants him to go to Syracuse. That's been well established. He's from Rochester, New York, so it makes sense in that regard. But continue to hear he would like to get away from home and with the NCAA cloud hanging over the Syracuse program right now, that's nowhere near the slam dunk many thought before.
Between Chuck Martin and IU's resume of producing lottery bigs, there's a realistic shot here. Can't go farther than that right now and it still looks like a mid-spring decision.
No other 2015 targets look serious right now other than maybe Thon Maker. Just so much uncertainty there as it is a bit of circus. The Orangeville Prep program is more of a showcase situation as their poor record in the USA attests. Maker could play overseas as he spent many years in Australia and guys like Brandon Jennings and Emmanuel Mudiay have opened up that possibility more.
But not a lot of other late possibilities of note, at least as far as we know right now. For example if things had heated up with Antonio Vrankovic you would have probably heard of trips to Florida to see him like that Will Yeguete recruitment several years past.
The Class of 2016 seems to begin with De'Ron Davis and we've updated you a couple times on that one here in the last couple weeks. IU has made up ground with 6'10 Joey Brunk but still some work to be done. Some very good two guard possibilities with Rawle Alkins and Eron Gordon. Bruce Brown if he stays in 2016. Lamar Stevens is ideal for a Tom Crean team and there are some higher quality inside guys on the radar in Tyrique Jones, Austin Davis, Derek Funderburk and maybe Sedee Keita. One guy that was on the radar, Omari Spellman, committed to Villanova last week.
We've often discussed how talented the state of Indiana is in the Class of 2017 and the new rankings for that class reflect that:
No. 21 - Kris Wilkes, 6'7, Indianapolis North Central
No. 31 - Paul Scruggs, 6,3, Indianapolis Southport
No. 34 - Jaren Jackson, 6'8, Indianapolis Park Tudor
No. 71 - Malik Williams, 6'11, Fort Wayne Snider
The No. 2 overall player is now Michael Porter, a 6'8 forward who lived in the Indy area until his father landed an assistant job on the Missouri women's team. He's close to Wilkes, Scruggs and HSE's Zach Gunn, yet another 2017 in-state prospect of note.
Speaking of that 2017 class a recruiting contact I know is convinced that a Midwest prospect to watch out for in that class and one not a lot of people know about is 6'2/6'3 guard Alonzo Verge from Willowbrook (Villa Park), Illinois. Been tearing it up of late.
Verge is under the radar since he did not play travel basketball last offseason and was out of state to boot.
That source is also convinced the best 2016 prospect in that state is 6'9 Rapolas Ivanauskas from Barrington High. Unranked but does hold Iowa and Northwestern offers and interest from Wisconsin, Indiana, Illinois.
--------
Looking like Indiana is headed to the 5-7 seed area for the Big Ten tournament. Can no longer catch Maryland or Purdue as they'll lose the tiebreakers there even if those two teams both lose out and just stay with 11 wins.
Here's a look at the schedules of the teams they're competing with for the 4-7 seed area:
Michigan State (10-5) - at Wisconsin, Purdue, at Indiana
Ohio State (9-6) - Purdue, at Penn State, Wisconsin
Iowa (9-6) - at Penn State, at Indiana, Northwestern
Indiana (9-7) - Iowa, Michigan State
A quick look at the likely scenarios for the 4-7 seed range:
4 seed - gets a coveted bye until Friday. Then faces the 5/12 winner in the second afternoon contest.
5 seed - Thursday afternoon game, possibly against survivor of Penn State vs Nebraska. Winner gets a Friday afternoon game against 4 seed (Michigan St?)
6 seed - Thursday night game against either Rutgers or the 11 seed (Nebraska?). Winner may very well get Purdue on Friday night.
7 seed - today this looks like a Thursday evening game against Minnesota. Winner gets Friday night game against No. 2 seed (Maryland?).
For fans interested in a get together in Chicago, we're definitely organizing one. Probably on Thursday sometime now that IU looks to be playing that day. We've had a good response already and if you'd like to be on our email list for information, I can be reached at this email here.
---------
Matt Weaver is back with a football update:
The Indiana staff has been hard work on the 2016 recruiting class with getting prospects on campus for visits and by extending new offers. Back on the 8th of February IU had a junior day and Peegs.com spoke to a number of the players that were there for that event.
One recruit that made the trip to Bloomington for the junior day was Illinois WR/DB Emmanuel Rugamba. The Hoosiers offered him while he was on campus for his visit. The three-star recruit could play on either side of the ball in college but IU likes him on offense at wideout. You can read the story we did on him here[/URL].
Fellow Illinois native Desmond Bland also made he drive over for the Indiana Junior Day a few weeks back and before he left town the IU staff extended him an offer. The three-star offensive lineman projects as an interior lineman in college. Here is the story we did on Bland not long after his visit to IU.
Mishawaka offensive lineman Ben Knutson made the trip down to Bloomington for the junior day and he also picked up an offer. The three-star recruit is a very big lineman at 6'8 and around 270 and most schools are recruiting him to play tackle, but there is a chance he could also end up on defense as a defensive lineman. You can see what he told us about his IU visit in this story.
Missouri tight end is another 2016 prospect that visited IU for the junior day and picked up an offer before leaving town. The three-star recruit had a big season this past fall at Lafayette H.S. in Wildwood, MO in his first season playing tight end. Peegs.com spoke to Scales about the visit and about what he thinks of the IU program. You can read that story here.
Last week the Hoosiers hosted a fan day where Coach Wilson talked about the new recruiting class before the basketball team played Purdue. The staff was able to get a handful of in-state players to come down for the event and for the game. Indianapolis athlete Chris Evans was one of the players that visited last week. The three-star recruit from Ben Davis is one of the top targets for IU in the 2016 class and they have made a strong early impression on him. update we did on Evans after his most recent trip to Bloomington.
Another top target for the Hoosiers in the 2016 class is quarterback Brandon Peters from Avon H.S. The four-star prospect was at the junior day back on the 8th and he was also down last week for the fan event and basketball game. Peters is not only one of the top players on the state, he is one of the top players nationally. He has recently picked up offers from Michigan and LSU and he looks close to getting offers from Nebraska and Notre Dame. He told the Nebraska Rivals site that IU is one of three schools that are really standing out to him, and he mentions how strong of a bond he has been able to develop with the staff. You can read that story here.
Another in-state prospect that was in Bloomington last Thursday for an unofficial visit was Hamilton Southeastern LB Collin Miller. He came into the visit hoping for an IU offer and he got his wish as the Hoosiers' coaching staff offered him while he was on campus for the visit. A few days after that visit he was in Ohio for the Pylon 7-on-7 event and he did a video interview with Josh Helmholdt. You can watch that interview here.
Helmholdt did a story where he talked about the top performers at that event and there were a handful of prospects from Indiana that performed well including Chris Evans and his Ben Davis teammate Stori Emerson and Ft. Wayne QB Aidan Smith. You can check out the top performers story Helmholdt did here.
Emerson is a 6'2, 190-pound receiver for the Giants and he is another guy that was down at IU last week for a visit. He spoke to Helmholdt about his recruiting and his interest in IU in this story.
The next big junior day for IU looks to be next weekend when the basketball team plays Michigan State at home on March 7th. One player who is scheduled to be on campus is Ohio defensive lineman Jeff Pooler. The Dayton native has already visited IU and he is very high on the Hoosiers. Here is the story that the Cincinnati Rivals.com site did on him where he talks about Indiana.
Indiana was the first offer for St. Louis defensive back Roderick Campbell and the three-star prospect really likes the Hoosiers. He told Josh Helmholdt that IU is one of three schools that are standing out to him at this time. Here is the story that Helmholdt did on Campbell where he talks about the Hoosiers and why he likes them so much.
The Indiana staff is also showing some interest in junior college prospects in the 2016 class and they recently offered one in linebacker here.
This post was edited on 2/27 11:01 AM by Peegs
